Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

SkyCap Financial’s Privacy Philosophy

SkyCap Financial and our affiliates, partners and nominees, and independent third parties (including independent third party lenders and independent third party service providers who may provide financial, credit, data, information or other services), are committed to fairly and lawfully collecting and maintaining accurate personal information and to protecting the confidentiality of all personal information that we collect, retain, use or disclose to others in the course of our business activities.

OUR CONTINUING COMMITMENT TO YOU

Protecting the privacy and confidentiality of personal information has always been fundamental to the way we do business at SkyCap Financial. We strive to meet or exceed all the privacy standards established by federal, provincial and industry authorities in all our dealings with past, current and prospective customers.

WE LIVE BY IT EVERYDAY

As a condition of their continuing employment, every SkyCap Financial employee annually signs a declaration acknowledging their agreement to be bound by the SkyCap Financial Policy of Business Conduct, which includes both references to SkyCap Financial policies, such as this Privacy Policy, and a confidentiality section obligating them to maintain the confidentiality of information both during and after their employment with SkyCap Financial.

SkyCap Financial has appointed a Privacy Officer and has established a Complaints Procedure to ensure compliance with this Privacy Policy.

WHAT IS PERSONAL INFORMATION?

Personal information is information that identifies you as an individual. It includes your name and address, age and gender, also your personal financial records,
identification numbers including your social insurance number, personal references, and employment records.

WHAT IS IN THIS POLICY

This Privacy Policy has been developed to meet the standards set out in Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and similar provincial legislation. The Privacy Policy describes the principles SkyCap Financial will use to protect the privacy of personal information we possess about our clients, including sole proprietors and individuals carrying on business in a partnership, and establishes ethical and fair information management practices with respect to personal information collected, used or disclosed by SkyCap Financial. The Policy informs customers, be they borrowers, or our investors, and our business associates, how personal information is handled within SkyCap Financial.

APPLICATION OF THIS POLICY

This Privacy Policy applies to all SkyCap Financial directors, officers, and employees with respect to any personal information in the possession or control of SkyCap Financial.

This Privacy Policy does not apply to information about business customers carrying on business as corporations, partnerships or in other forms of association. The confidentiality of information with respect to those entities is protected at SkyCap Financial by our adherence to the applicable laws, our contracts with our business customers, and SkyCap Financial’s other internal policies.

This Policy does, however, apply to information about officers, staff or principals of corporate clients, such as those providing personal guarantees of corporate loans.

SKYCAP FINANCIAL’S RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHER INVESTORS / LENDERS

SkyCap Financial and our affiliates, partners and nominees are in the business of providing various financial services to its customers. This includes originating, underwriting and funding loans to borrowers, with monies that may have been provided to SkyCap Financial from institutional lenders / investors, who contract for SkyCap Financial to provide those services and to administer, manage, and collect payments on those loans on their behalf and to report to them on the status of those financial assets.

Given our requirement to report to these beneficial owners of the loans, SkyCap Financial must be able to receive and disclose to them various personal information relating to these financial services.

We may also obtain or share information about you with our third parties service providers, who help us provide and support our financial services (such as credit bureaus and identity verification services). Just like with the other third parties we work with, these third party service providers enter into a contract that requires them to use your Personal Information only for the provision of services to us and in a manner that is consistent with this policy.

Further, when you choose to provide us with access to certain personal information stored by third parties (such as banking aggregation agencies), the information we may receive varies by site/third party and is controlled by that third party. By consenting to disclosure of information managed by a third party with us and authorizing us to have access to this information, you agree that we may use this information for facilitation of SkyCap Financial services to yourself. All information received from a third-party shall be collected, stored and used in accordance with this Policy.

You may choose not to have us conduct required checks or receive required information from third parties, however, this may limit our ability to determine your eligibility for a financial service and may hinder our ability to provide services to you (or necessitate additional steps).

This is why our documentation, such as our applications and commitment letters, contain your acknowledgement and consent to so disclose. We do so based on that consent and in accordance with this Policy.

THE REASONABLE PERSON APPROACH

PIPEDA is really about sound information management practices. It requires an ethical, common sense, reasonable person approach to requesting, validating and maintaining personal information as a part of our business activities. Confidentiality is a sensitive topic. Many Canadians have raised concerns about the privacy of their personal information. Within SkyCap Financial we strive to understand what customers, clients and investors deem to be reasonable and then apply the principles in this Policy.

SKYCAP FINANCIAL’S PRIVACY PRINCIPLES

SkyCap Financial endorses and has adopted the ten privacy principals set out in full in Schedule 1 of PIPEDA. These ten privacy principles summarized below, embody sound and prudent information management practices. These practices will provide the necessary assurances that personal information obtained and utilized by SkyCap Financial in the course of its business activities will be accurate, held in confidence and be retained in a secure environment.

Principle 1: Accountability

SkyCap Financial takes responsibility for protecting and maintaining personal information under its control and has appointed a Privacy Officer to ensure compliance with these principles and PIPEDA.

SkyCap Financial will identify and disclose the reasons for which personal information is collected and used by SkyCap Financial at or before the time the information is collected.

Principle 3: Consent

SkyCap Financial will obtain an individual’s informed consent for the collection, use or disclosure of personal information by SkyCap Financial, except as otherwise required or permitted by law.

Principle 4: Limits to the Collection of Personal Information

SkyCap Financial will limit the amount and type of personal information collected to that, which is necessary for its intended purposes. Personal information will be collected by fair and lawful means.

Principle 5: Limits to the Use, Disclosure and Retention of Personal Information

SkyCap Financial will not use or disclose personal information for purposes other than those for which it was collected, except with the consent of the individual, or as required or permitted by law. Personal information will be retained only as long as it is necessary to fulfill those purposes.

Principle 6: Accuracy

To minimize the possibility of inappropriate information being considered in its decision-making processes, SkyCap Financial will keep personal information as accurate, complete, and up-to-date as necessary for its intended purposes.

Principle 7: Safety & Security

SkyCap Financial will maintain appropriate safeguards to protect personal information from loss or theft, unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use or modification regardless of the format in which it is retained.

Principle 8: Openness

SkyCap Financial will inform its customers, clients and employees about its policies and procedures regarding the management of personal information. SkyCap Financial will ensure that these policies and procedures are easily understood and readily available.

Principle 9: Individual Access

Upon request, SkyCap Financial will inform an individual of the existence, use and disclosure of his or her personal information and will provide the individual access to that information to verify and or update its accuracy and completeness.

Principle 10: Handling Inquiries

An individual will be able to direct an issue or concern regarding compliance with the above principles, or SkyCap Financial’s practices to SkyCap Financial’s Privacy Officer or to other accountable employees.

WHAT INFORMATION DOES SKYCAP FINANCIAL COLLECT?

SkyCap Financial and our affiliates, partners and nominees collects only the information that is needed for or related to the business purpose or product being requested. This personal information is obtained primarily from you.

SkyCap Financial and our affiliates, partners and nominees may also obtain additional information from other sources with your consent. For example, when you apply for a loan, SkyCap Financial asks you to authorize us to obtain a credit bureau report on you, and to collect and verify your personal information with the credit bureau, your employer, personal references, and other lenders. If you do not authorize us to obtain your credit bureau report, and to verify your personal information, our standard lending practices may not allow us to provide you with a positive response to your loan request.

WHY AND WHAT TYPE OF INFORMATION IS COLLECTED

SkyCap Financial wants to work with you to help you achieve your goals, to provide you with value-added service on an ongoing basis, and to establish a lasting relationship with you as your needs grow and change. The better SkyCap Financial knows you, the better we are able to serve you. SkyCap Financial therefore asks you for your personal information for the following purposes:

– To identify you, thereby protecting us both from error and fraud;

– To understand your needs;

– To determine the suitability of our products and services for you;

– To determine your eligibility for our products and services;

– To provide you with information and offers on our products and services, or those of our business associates, that SkyCap Financial believes may be of interest to you, and

– To comply with applicable laws.

There are some purposes, which are self-evident. For example, if you are applying for a loan, SkyCap Financial asks for information concerning your credit history and for personal references, which SkyCap Financial may use to verify the information you provided and to underwrite your loan application. SkyCap Financial may also obtain information about you from other sources in order to better understand and meet your needs and goals.

In general, you can choose not to provide us with some or all of your personal information. However, you must understand that if you make this choice, SkyCap Financial may not be able to provide you with the product, service, or information that you requested or that was or could be offered to you.

SkyCap Financial will make sure you are aware of the purposes for collecting information when you apply for any of our products or services. Self-evident purposes should be clear, but if you have any questions, just ask us. If a new purpose for using your personal information develops, SkyCap Financial will ask for your consent again.

DISCLOSURE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION OUTSIDE OF SKYCAP FINANCIAL

SkyCap Financial has a strict policy of not releasing personal information about our customers, subject to the important exceptions discussed below.

The most common reason for release of your personal information is that you have given your consent. For example, when you apply for a loan and accept our loan agreement, you give your consent to the exchange of information about you with a credit bureau, other credit grantors.

Other reasons may include if we have a legal obligation, such as a court order, or if we need to protect assets (e.g. collection of overdue accounts) or the public’s interest. For example, we may release personal information about a customer to legal authorities in cases of criminal activity, or for the detection and prevention of fraud. If we release information for any of these reasons, we keep a record of what, when, why and to whom such information was released.

We do not keep a record of why your personal information is disclosed to third parties for routine purposes such as reporting regular update reports to a credit bureau, and investors / lenders, and reporting to third parties when cheques are returned NSF (i.e. for insufficient funds).

On occasion, SkyCap Financial and our affiliates, partners and nominees may offer and/or provide disclosure of personal information to manage and promote the business activities of SkyCap Financial. Further, if the company or our affiliates, partners, nominees and third parties refer you to an independent business for a proposed transaction, then we may collect personal and other information from that independent business regarding the transaction to update your profile for use by the company and our affiliates, partners, nominees and third parties in the manner set out in our Privacy Policy.

SkyCap Financial and our affiliates, partners, nominees and third parties may use this information for general and customized market analysis and research for you; and for the marketing to you of information, memberships, products, programs, and services from the company and our affiliates, partners, nominees and third parties, and also from independent businesses.

SHARING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

Your personal information may be shared within our company, our affiliates, and any third party service providers to help us with our business operations. Specifically, to the extent permitted by law and to the extent necessary, SkyCap Financial may share your information within SkyCap Financial, our affiliates, and third party service providers, in order to provide loans, and other products and services. This sharing is limited to a need to know basis. With our various departments having a more comprehensive understanding of your requirements, we are better able to meet your needs as they grow and change.

We may also disclose your personal information if it is necessary for us to collect a debt from you, respond to an public or private assertion or allegation against us, our affiliates, and third party service providers concerning your account or where we have reason to believe that it is relevant to the investigation or decision to investigate a breach of the laws of Canada, a province or territory of Canada, or a foreign jurisdiction, and we are legally permitted to do so.

SkyCap Financial routinely collects and collates anonymous, non-personal information that is not traced back to a specific individual or business client. This includes individual and cumulative transaction and settlement records with our various investors. This type of information is considered necessary and consistent with the SkyCap Financial business activity.

Further, SkyCap Financial and our affiliates, partners and nominees may work with third parties, including merchants, to enable them to aid and facilitate services that we provide to you. In doing so, a third party may share information about you with us, to inform and provide us with essential information (alone or in combination with other information) used to process your services.

The information you provide to such third parties and their websites (i.e. not directly on a SkyCap website) will be shared with the owner of the third party website or application. Those sites are governed by their own privacy policies and you are encouraged to review their privacy policies before providing them with your personal information. SkyCap Financial and our affiliates, partners and nominees are not responsible for the content or information practices of such third parties.

EXCEPTIONS TO THE NO COLLECTION, USE OR DISCLOSURE WITHOUT CONSENT RULES

The limited exceptions, applicable to SkyCap Financial and our affiliates, partners and nominees, relating to obtaining consent for the collection, use or disclosures of personal information include the following:

COLLECTION

SkyCap Financial and our affiliates, partners and nominees are authorized by PIPEDA to collect personal information without the knowledge or consent of the individual where:

Collection of the personal information is clearly in the interests of the individual and consent cannot be obtained in a timely manner;

It is reasonable to expect that collection of the personal information with the knowledge or consent of the individual would compromise the availability or accuracy of the information and the collection is reasonable for purposes of investigating a breach of an agreement or contravention of federal or provincial law; or

The information is publicly available and is specified by regulations issued by federal legislation.

USE

SkyCap Financial and our affiliates, partners and nominees are authorized by PIPEDA to use personal information, without the knowledge or consent of the individual, in circumstances including where:

The personal information was originally collected without consent, express or implied, and collection was clearly in the interests of the individual and consent could not be obtained in a timely manner;

The information was originally collected without consent, express or implied, in circumstances where collection with the knowledge and consent of the individual would compromise the availability or accuracy of the information and the collection was reasonable for the purposes of investigating a breach of an agreement or a contravention of federal or provincial law;

SkyCap Financial and our affiliates, partners and nominees have reasonable grounds to believe the information could be useful in the investigation of a contravention of federal, provincial or foreign law, that has been, is being, or is about to be committed, and the information is used for the purpose of investigating that contravention;

It is used with respect to an emergency that threatens the life, health or security of an individual;

It is used for statistical or scholarly study or research purposes, under limited conditions approved by the Privacy Commissioner; and/or

The information is publicly available and is specified by the Regulations to PIPEDA.

DISCLOSURE

PIPEDA authorizes SkyCap Financial and our affiliates, partners and nominees to disclose personal information without the knowledge or consent of the individual in circumstances including if such disclosure:

Is made, within the Province of Quebec, to an advocate or notary or, in any other province, a barrister or solicitor who is representing SkyCap Financial;

Is for the purpose of collecting a debt owed by the individual to SkyCap Financial;

Is required to comply with a subpoena or warrant issued, or an order made by a court, person or body with jurisdiction to compel the production of information, or to comply with rules of court relating to the production of records;

Is made to a government institute that has identified its lawful authority to obtain the information, and which has indicated (i) it suspects the information relates to national security, the defense of Canada, or the conduct of international affairs, or (ii) disclosure is requested for the enforcement of federal, provincial or foreign law, carrying out an investigation relating to such enforcement, or gathering intelligence for the purpose of such enforcement, or (iii) disclosure is requested for the purpose of administering a federal or provincial law;

Is made to an investigative body or government institution on the initiative of SkyCap Financial, and relates to a breach of an agreement or a contravention of federal, provincial or foreign law; or where SkyCap Financial suspects the information relates to national security, the defense of Canada or the conduct of international affairs;

Is made because of an emergency that threatens the life, health or security of an individual and SkyCap Financial informs the individual without delay of the disclosure; and/or

Is made for statistical or scholarly study and research purposes, under limited conditions, approved by the Privacy Commissioner.

SkyCap Financial and our affiliates, partners and nominees may use other companies to provide services to you on our behalf, such as the printing of correspondence, storage of your files in a secured environment or to conduct customer satisfaction surveys on our behalf. In such cases, we will have contracts in place holding these companies to the same high standards of confidentiality by which we are governed and requiring that any information provided by us must be kept strictly confidential and used only for the purposes of the contract.

SkyCap Financial and our affiliates, partners and nominees also have agreements in place with credit bureaus and other investors / lenders, which also require that any information provided by us must be maintained in strict confidence.

SkyCap Financial and our affiliates, partners and nominees employ procedures to ensures the physical, organizational and electronic security of your personal information through the use of secure locks on filing cabinets and doors, and restricted access to our information processing and storage areas. SkyCap Financial and our affiliates, partners and nominees limits access to relevant information to authorized employees only, and through the use of pass keys and computer passwords and, where necessary, the encryption of electronically transmitted information.

SkyCap Financial and our affiliates, partners and nominees have procedures in place when destroying, deleting or disposing of personal information when it is no longer required for the purposes as set out in this Policy, or by law, to prevent unauthorized access to such personal information and while no company can eliminate all breaches of security, you can rest assure that SkyCap Financial and our affiliates, partners and nominees are continually taking pro-active measures to secure all personal information.

RETENTION OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

SkyCap Financial and our affiliates, partners and nominees only keeps your personal information for as long as we need it to meet the purposes set out in this Policy. The length of time we retain your personal information is also affected by: (1) the type of product or service you have from us, and (2) any legal requirements we may have to meet such as regulatory file retention periods or for being able to respond to any concerns you may have even if you are no longer a customer of ours.

PRIVACY OPT OUT POLICY

You can choose not to provide us with some or all of your personal information. This may, however, severely restrict the products and services SkyCap Financial and our affiliates, partners and nominees can then provide. You can also withdraw your consent to our use of your personal information, as long as you give us notice in writing, addressed to:

Withdrawing your consent does not result in our or your inability to fulfill your financial contract already in place with us; and

Your consent does not relate to a credit product we have granted to you, where we are required to collect and exchange some or all of your personal information on an ongoing basis, with other investors / lenders, or a credit bureau or to maintain the integrity of the credit-granting system and the completeness of information held by a credit bureau.

HOW YOU CAN HELP US PROTECT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

If you want to review or verify your personal information, or find out to whom we have disclosed it as permitted by this Policy, you can call and speak to one of our service representatives. At that time, if it is not something that can be simply answered over the phone, we will provide you with a form to sign and will help you complete the specific information we will need from you to enable us to search for, and provide you with, the requested personal information we hold about you. We may charge you a fee to do this and will advise you of the fee in advance.

There are a few instances where we will not be able to provide the personal information we hold about you that you request. Some of these instances include, if:

– It contains references to other persons;

– It is subject to solicitor-client or litigation privilege;

– It contains our own proprietary information that is confidential to us;

– It has already been destroyed due to legal requirements or because we no longer needed it for the purposes set out in this Policy;

– It is too costly, in our determination, to retrieve;

– We are prohibited by law from disclosing to you.

– If we are unable to provide you with access to your personal information, we will explain the reason why.

Remember that in most provinces you have the right to access and verify the personal information held about you by a credit bureau. To do so, you must speak directly to the appropriate bureau.

KEEPING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION ACCURATE

We are committed to maintaining the accuracy of your personal information for as long as it is being used for the purposes set out in this Policy. You play an active role in keeping us up-to-date. Prompt notification of any changes, for example to your address or telephone number, will help us provide you with the best possible service. Should you discover, upon review of your personal information, that amendments are required, please advise us.

If we do not agree to make the amendments that you request, you may challenge our decision. We will make a record of this challenge, which will be kept on file.

DO YOU HAVE QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS?

If you have privacy questions, concerns or complaints, we want them to be answered satisfactorily or resolved as quickly as possible and ask that you follow, in order, the following three steps.

First: Contact the person at SkyCap Financial you have been dealing with or call our Customer Service Centre and speak to a representative. They can usually handle most questions or concerns immediately over the phone.

Second: If the Customer Service Representative or the employee you dealt with is unable to resolve the matter to your satisfaction, advise them that you wish the matter to be reviewed by the department manager who will contact you to resolve the issue. You may be asked to put your concern or complaint in writing.

Third: If you are still not satisfied contact SkyCap Financials’ Privacy Officer at the addressed noted above.

Upon completion of review by SkyCap Financials’ Privacy Officer, if the above steps fail to resolve your concern to your satisfaction, your issue may be reviewed by the Privacy Commissioner of Canada who you may contact at any time in this process at:

Any SkyCap Financial employee who believes personal information is not being handled in accordance with this Policy should immediately so advise their manager and the Privacy Officer.

Department Managers required to resolve privacy issues (as per the second step in our privacy question and complaint handling process) shall maintain appropriate records of the same and shall report them to the Privacy Officer.

Department Managers are responsible for oversight of this Policy within their department, including establishing, implementing and regularly reviewing the necessary procedures and standards to give effect to this Policy and to train their staff accordingly.

SkyCap Financials’ General Counsel is responsible for providing advice and assistance to the Privacy Officer and the Department Managers on appropriate compliance programs and for reviewing the effectiveness of such programs.

The Privacy Officer shall act as a resource to Department Managers in the handling of disputes and shall present a summary report annually to the Compliance and Governance Committee of the Board of SkyCap Financial with respect to unresolved privacy disputes, the nature and number of privacy issues reviewed and any recommendations with respect to privacy strategies, oversight and policies.

Changes to this Privacy Policy and the information handling practices of SkyCap Financial will result in amendments to this document from time to time. The Policy will be reviewed by the Privacy Officer at a minimum, annually. SkyCap Financial may add, delete or modify sections at its discretion.

SKYCAP CANADIAN ANTI-SPAM LEGISLATION (CASL) POLICY

By checking and consenting to receive electronic messages from us in compliance with this Privacy Policy, as well and this CASL Policy on our website and/or submitted loan application to SkyCap, you are authorizing SkyCap and our affiliates, partners and nominees to communicate with you via email, social media, text message, telephone, and fax or any other form of electronic and internet based method via computers, smart phones, mobile or hand held devices, or telephones. SkyCap may send messages to our applicants, clients, customers, and members in relation to the company’s services, programs, programs, offers, promotions or those of our affiliates, partners, nominees and third parties.

Regrettably, without your consent, SkyCap will not be able to provide you with financial services as SkyCap only provides financial services by electronic means.

Messages will be sent by SkyCap Financial:

1020 Bayridge Drive, Suite 104, Kingston, Ontario K7P 2S2.

Phone: 1-877-924-4557

Fax: 1-877-926-6238

Email: info@skycapfinancial.com

You may unsubscribe at any time by following the instructions in our communications. You may also withdraw your consent by contacting us at any of the contacts listed above or by means specified in our website or agreement. Should you have any questions, please contact us.